Tofu, meat analogues or vegetables such as pumpkin can be substituted as a pseudo-vegetarian option, but due to the presence of shrimp paste in curry paste, substituting protein does not make the dish vegetarian. There are, however, vegetarian red curry pastes available.

This dish normally has a soup-like consistency and is served in a bowl and eaten with steamed rice.

Red curry paste itself is the core flavouring for a number of other non-related dishes such Thot man pla (fish cakes) and sai ua (grilled Chiang Mai sausage).